SS22

Hello Forum Members,

This is my first post, but I've been a Civic owner for 6 years now. I'd like to start off by saying thank you for any and all help you provide.

Background: I have an '05 DX-Value Package (1.7l). I got it with 70K. It now has 260K. It runs like a top. It's the perfect commuter vehicle for my 90 mile daily commute to work.

However, as of about a month ago it's been overheating inconsistently and I can't for the life of me figure out why.

I start off by filling the cooling system up to where the coolant is coming out of the block with the temperature sensor removed. Then, I make sure the coolant overflow is filled to the minimum level when cold. I start the car with the cap off and let it run until the fans kick on to get ride of the air bubbles. Then, I add coolant as needed to get the level correct and put the cap on.

From there, I'll get about 130 miles (135 hours) of highway driving between a day and a half before it gets hot. The coolant overflow will be completely full and coolant will be pushing out of the top of the overflow. To give the car another day or two of driving before overheating, I can remove coolant from the overflow every 45 miles. However, at around day 3 or 4, there will be very little coolant in the radiator and engine.

What I've Done:

• Timing belt
• Water pump
• Radiator
• Condensor
• Radiator top hose
• Radiator bottom hose
• Trans coolant lines
• New freon
• New trans fuild (oem)
• Oil and filter changed
• New coolant
• New temp sensor above thermostat (oem)
• New fan sensor below thermostat (oem)
• New radiator cap (oem and replaced twice just to make sure it wasn't a faulty cap)
• New thermostat (oem)
• I've also checked to see if there was any exhaust gas in the coolant to see if there's a cracked head or bad head gasket. Test came back negative.

Before the coolant gets really low from overflowing out of the coolant overflow tank, turning the heat on will help manage the temps. Once it's low, the heater is no longer affective (obviously).

The car runs like a top, without any loss of power and shifts great. If I didn't have the engine temp gauge I wouldn't know anything was wrong. Also, no smoke out of the engine bay or exhaust.

What the heck is wrong with my car? It's driving me crazy (no pun).

Thanks for your help!

-Brian

Colin42

Headgasket, go read the sticky

brags

SS22 when You say you have owned this vehicle since it had 70 K ? is that Canadian Km's or usa miles?

Soo... between 70k and now with 260 K have You ever done any kind of coollant drain and fills and if so how many?

SS22

Thanks. I performed the gases test like the sticky mentions and the test came back negative / no gases in the cooling system, which makes me think the head gasket is okay?

SS22

It's in miles, not km's. I performed one coolant flush at 150K miles, before the recent flush at around 257K miles.

ezone

Wrong.
Read the first post in the thread linked here: overheating-mysterious-coolant-loss-common-causes-reference.html

Colin42

Wrong

This sticky, sorry I was on my phone

Slumpertcivic

My hypothis is that in our Honda engines, once ingnition starts the exhaust gases don’t reach the edges of the cylinder before the pressure drops enough they can’t pass though. The “clean” air that was near the failed edge is what gets pushed into the water jacket as a micro bubble so there is very little actual exhaust gas in the coolant to react with the chemicals.

ezone

This is the only part that is accurate.

The color changing fluid test simply isn't sensitive enough to show extremely slow leakage. Not enough VOLUME for it to work.

By the time one of these engines is leaking bad enough to trip on this test, it should be bad enough that I would hope just about anyone could figure it out without the tester.